A wide variety of aliphatic carboxylic acids of differing carbon numbers and structures are presently important articles of commerce. These carboxylic acids can be utilized as the acids per se or converted into other useful materials. For example, detergent range carboxylic acids can be converted via hydrogenation into detergent range alcohols which find applications in the detergents products industries. The lower alcohols such as, for example, methanol and ethanol are readily produced from syngas. The lower carboxylic acids such as, for example, acetic acid and propionic acid can readily be prepared from methanol and ethanol, respectively, by carbonylation. A process that would convert these lower alcohols/acids to higher numbered carboxylic acids would be extremely useful. Knifton in U.S. Pat. No. 4,260,820, issued Apr. 17, 1981, discloses a ruthenium/I catalyst for converting acetic acid to the higher homologs. The catalyst, however, is not particularly effective when dealing with higher molecular weight acids. Paulik et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,769,329, issued Oct. 30, 1973, discloses a rhodium-iodide system which converts an alcohol to the next higher acid. It does not appear useful for converting an alcohol or an acid to a series of acids.